Shearwater Pottery is a small family-owned pottery in Ocean Springs, Mississippi

Ocean Springs, Mississippi

Ocean Springs is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States, about east of Biloxi. It is part of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 17,225 at the 2000 census...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 founded in 1928 by Peter Anderson

Peter Anderson (artist)

Peter Anderson was an American ceramist and founder of Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He was born in New Orleans to George Walter Anderson, a grain broker, and Annette McConnell Anderson, member of a prominent New Orleans family, who had studied art at Newcomb College, where she...

 (1901-1984), with the support of his parents, George Walter Anderson and Annette McConnell Anderson. From the 1920s through the present day, the Pottery has produced art pottery, utilitarian ware, figurines, decorative tiles and other ceramic objects. Two of its most important designers were Walter Inglis Anderson

Walter Inglis Anderson

Walter Inglis Anderson was an American painter, writer, and naturalist.Known to his family as "Bob", he was born in New Orleans to George Walter Anderson, a grain broker, and Annette McConnell Anderson, member of a prominent New Orleans family, who had studied art at Newcomb College, where she had...

 (1903-1965) and his brother James McConnell Anderson

James McConnell Anderson

James McConnell "Mac" Anderson was an American painter, muralist, and pottery designer and decorator, youngest of the three brothers who collaborated at Shearwater Pottery, Ocean Springs, Mississippi .Born in New Orleans, Anderson attended schools there...

 (1907-1998). Although Shearwater was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 in 2005, the workshop was rebuilt and restored by Jason Stebly. Pottery continues to be thrown by Peter’s son James Anderson and the latter's son Peter Wade Anderson, and decorated by Patricia Anderson Findeisen, Christopher Inglis Stebly, Adele Anderson Lawton and others. Michael Anderson heads the Shearwater Annex, and Marjorie Anderson Ashley is business manager.

See also

• George E. Ohr
  George E. Ohr
  George Edgar Ohr was an American ceramic artist and the self-proclaimed "Mad Potter of Biloxi." In recognition of his innovative experimentation with modern clay forms from 1880–1910, some...
  
  , the "Mad Potter of Biloxi"
• Walter Anderson Museum of Art
  Walter Anderson Museum of Art
  The Walter Anderson Museum of Art opened in 1991 in historic Ocean Springs, Mississippi. WAMA is dedicated to the celebration of the works of Walter Inglis Anderson , American master, whose depictions of the plants, animals, and people of the Gulf Coast have placed him among the forefront of...
  
  in Ocean Springs

External sources

• Christopher Maurer, Dreaming in Clay on the Coast of Mississippi: Love and Art at Shearwater (Doubleday, 2001) Second edition, University Press of Mississippi, 2010.
• C. Maurer & M.E. Iglesias Research Collection on Walter Anderson and Shearwater Pottery at Special Collections, University of Mississippi
• Dod Stewart, Shearwater Pottery (privately printed, 2006)
• Shearwater Pottery
• Dreaming in Clay
• Art of James McConnell Anderson
• Ogden Museum of Southern Art exhibition notes on Walter Inglis Anderson
• Ocean Springs Archives by Ray L. Bellande